In Commonwealth City, movement is a public right.
Transit is considered a survival-adjacent system: you cannot meaningfully participate in civic life if you cannot move through it. As a result, the City maintains a dense, layered, and redundant public transit network designed to move millions of people daily without relying on private vehicles.
Private transit exists.
It is never necessary.
Transit in Commonwealth City prioritizes:
Reliability
Coverage
Capacity
Accessibility
It does not prioritize:
Individual luxury
Personal ownership
Maximum speed for a few
If you want faster or more private movement, you trade visibility, scrutiny, or cost—not access.
The Surface Backbone
Buses form the most visible layer of transit.
Electrified, autonomous, and semi-autonomous fleets
High frequency on major corridors
Low frequency but guaranteed coverage everywhere else
Fully accessible by default
Buses adapt routes dynamically during disruptions, protests, or emergencies. They are slow, reliable, and impossible to fully shut down.
Social Reality:
If something is wrong in a district, the buses know first.
Localized, On-Demand Movement
Transit pods are small, automated vehicles operating on dedicated lanes and guideways.
Short-range, point-to-point travel
Shared by default
Can be summoned from public terminals or personal devices
Prioritized for mobility-limited citizens and time-sensitive travel
Pods are not taxis. You do not “hire” one—you request access.
Social Reality:
Pods trade speed for predictability.
They are efficient, not private.
The City’s Skeleton
The subway system is the oldest and most heavily used transit layer.
Multi-depth tunnels spanning all districts
High-capacity trains running near-continuously
Interconnected with freight, maintenance, and Grayline infrastructure
The subway is loud, crowded, and deeply embedded in daily life. Many lines predate the Unowned City itself and have been expanded rather than replaced.
Social Reality:
Everyone uses the subway.
No one controls it completely.
Separated from passenger traffic wherever possible.
Mag-rail and heavy cargo tunnels
Direct Harborline → Grayline → distribution hubs
Strictly regulated to avoid civilian disruption
Disrupting freight transit is treated as a citywide emergency.
Reserved lanes and routing overrides for:
Medical response
Infrastructure repair
CCPD and emergency services
Evacuations
Priority access is logged, reviewed, and audited.
Abuse is rare—and punished harshly.
Baseline transit access is free.
You never pay to:
Commute to work
Reach healthcare
Access civic services
Move between districts
Payment only applies to:
Priority routing
Reduced wait times
Privacy buffering
Specialized pods or routes
Even then, refusal never locks someone out—only slows them down.
Transit is managed by layered systems:
Routing and optimization AIs
Human oversight boards
Labor collectives
CORE Government Systems during emergencies
No single entity can fully shut transit down without triggering cascading oversight and public response.
When transit stops, the City listens.
Transit systems are monitored for:
Safety
Capacity
System health
They are not designed for mass policing.
Identification is contextual, not constant
Tracking requires justification
Data retention is limited and audited
Still, people assume they are being seen.
They are usually right—just not by who they expect.
The Core: Highly regulated, slower, heavily monitored
Harborline: Optimized for throughput and logistics
Stackside: Dense, frequent, socially noisy
Oldstone: Older lines, carefully preserved routes
Neon Row: Extended night service, flexible routing
The Grayline: Restricted access, maintenance corridors
The Fringe: Sparse, experimental, sometimes unreliable
Movement is rarely blocked—only delayed
Delays create tension, not failure
Disruptions ripple outward quickly
Control of transit equals leverage
Sabotage is a serious escalation
Travel is never trivial—but it is always possible.
In Commonwealth City, no one owns the roads, the rails, or the routes.
They belong to everyone.
Which means when something goes wrong…
Everyone feels it.